A Study In Steadiness At The Top

David Teel

WILLIAMSBURG — No course record or birdie binges at Kingsmill on Friday. Just a pesky banana peel, bizarre disqualification and stubborn leader.

Sarah Lee is your second-round front-runner at the Michelob Ultra Open, and here's to her for following up Thursday's record 63, the LPGA Tour's best score this season, with a solid 68.

The last time Lee went crazy-low, a first-round 60 in 2004 at Tucson, Ariz., she shot par-70 the next day. When Kim Williams fired the first LPGA 63 at Kingsmill, three years ago in the second round, she closed with 78-75.

Isn't that often the way in golf? Flawless one day, hopeless the next.

And Lee could have gone south Friday faster than Michael Vick sold his dog pound (half-price!). But she overcame errant drives at the first and fourth holes with par saves of 12 and 7 feet.

With much of her competition treading water Friday, Lee did not make a bogey and enters today with a two-shot lead over Becky Morgan and a four-stroke cushion over Amy Hung.

Friday's weather mirrored Thursday's, but the field failed to match its first-round assault on the River Course

the average score of 71.504 was easily the best in the tournament's five years.

The reason? Lee said Friday's pin placements were much more challenging, and after 38 players shot in the 60s Thursday, you had to figure LPGA Tour officials would toughen the joint up.

"Maybe it's because I'm hitting it straighter," Hung said. "But the course looks easier to me" than in past years.

Hung has yet to miss a fairway -- she's 28-for-28 -- and her 67-68 start marks her first consecutive sub-70 rounds since 2005. But like Lee and Morgan, Hung has never won an LPGA event, and history says Kingsmill will produce an established champion.

So gaze deeper into the top 20. That's where you'll find the class of the field: Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Prammanasudh, Cristie Kerr, Lorena Ochoa, Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer to name a half-dozen.

Creamer is eight shots back after a Friday 69 that should have been much better. Bogeys on both front-side par-5s? You can bet Creamer, who was bogey-free for the tournament's first 26 holes, dined on rusty nails Friday.

Her giveaway at the par-5 third was especially maddening. After a center-cut drive, she pushed a fairway wood into some trees and mulch. A punch out, indifferent chip and two putts later, Creamer was kicking her bag, muttering to herself and gesturing back toward the fairway.

So it went for the day's premier threesome: Creamer, Pressel (72) and Juli Inkster (73) gave their large gallery little to applaud other than Pressel's near-eagle at the first.

After tapping in for birdie there, Pressel munched on a banana while Creamer and Inkster putted out. But rather than toss the peel at her caddie, Pressel held onto it for several minutes, until she could walk to the second tee and find a trash can.

Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. You think Tiger or Phil would hold onto a banana peel? Heck, no. That's for Stevie and Bones. You're a star, the youngest major champion (18 years old) in LPGA history. Let others do the heavy lifting.

And whatever you do, don't practice on the 18th hole of Kingsmill's Plantation Course.

That was Clarissa Childs' sin Friday afternoon, and it got her disqualified. Since there is no out-of-bounds separating the Plantation's 18th from the River Course's 15th or 16th, that patch of real estate is technically on the tournament course.

Rule 7 forbids practicing on the course, and when LPGA official Jim Haley spotted Childs' innocent infraction prior to her 1:50 p.m., tee time, he sent her packing.

"She should have asked us (about practicing)," Haley said. "But that's not an indictment of Clarissa. She's one of the nicest people out here."

After an opening-round 75, Childs wasn't going to win the tournament. Neither, we suspect, will those atop the leaderboard.

David Teel can be reached at 247-4636 or by e-mail at dteel@dailypress.com *